Cost Optimized Building Energy Retrofit Measures and Primary Energy Savings under Different Retrofitting Materials, Economic Scenarios, and Energy Supply

Abstract

We analyze conventional retrofit building materials, aluminum, rock, and glass wool materials and compared such materials with wood-based materials to understand the lifecycle primary energy implications of moving from non-renewable to wood-based materials. We calculate cost optimum retrofit measures for a multi-apartment building in a lifecycle perspective, and lifecycle primary energy savings of each optimized measure. The retrofit measures consist of the thermal improvement of windows with varied frame materials, as well as extra insulation of attic floor, basement walls, and external walls with varied insulation materials. The most renewable-based heat supply is from a bioenergy-based district heating (DH) system. We use the marginal cost difference method to calculate cost-optimized retrofit measures. The net present value of energy cost savings of each measure with a varied energy performance is calculated and then compared with the calculated retrofit cost to identify the cost optimum of each measure. In a sensitivity analysis, we analyze the cost optimum retrofit measures under different economic and DH supply scenarios. The retrofit costs and primary energy savings vary somewhat between non-renewable and wood-based retrofit measures but do not influence the cost optimum levels significantly, as the economic parameters do. The lifecycle primary use of wood fiber insulation is about 76% and 80% less than for glass wool and rock wool, respectively. A small-scale DH system gives higher primary energy and cost savings compared to larger DH systems. The optimum final energy savings, in one of the economic scenarios, are close to meeting the requirements in one of the Swedish passive house standards.

Does energy retrofitting pay off? An analysis of German multifamily building data

“…Following the procedure outlined in Section 4.2 and defined by equations ( 4) and ( 5), the marginal costs of energy demand adjustment are plotted against the intervention level (IL), as depicted by the blue circles in figure 1b. The result suggests increasing marginal costs for retrofits on higher levels of energy efficiency, which has also been observed in earlier studies on energetic retrofits for different measures and materials [20,21]. To adjust the MCC (IL) that was plotted on the intervention level to the target level to obtain the final MCC, it is shifted to the right by S (=83.46 kWh/m 2 a).…”

Evaluation of the Quality of the Housing Environment Using Multi-Criteria Analysis That Includes Energy Efficiency: A Review

“…This is due to the fact that housing environments are among the most commonly constructed buildings [9]. Research topics can be divided into two categories: (i) those related to the design and implementation of housing environments, with solutions that improve the energy efficiency of a building being taken into consideration; and (ii) those related to the retrofitting of the existing stock of housing environments [10].…”

Recent Advances in Technologies, Methods, and Economic Analysis for Sustainable Development of Energy, Water, and Environment Systems

“…Then, the primary energy savings of each optimized measure can be estimated. Gustavsson and Piccardo [17] investigated the energy saving of conventional retrofit building materials, such as glass wool, aluminum, and rock materials, in comparison to wood-based materials. Lifecycle primary energy implications were introduced when wood-based materials were utilized instead of non-renewable ones.…”

“…Section 3 reviews component enhancement in renewable systems, including heat exchangers (e.g., cooling and thermal recovery devices for photovoltaics [13]) and other components for renewable applications (e.g., scroll expander for ORC [14], nozzle for compressible systems [15]). Section 4 collects papers that address the topic of sustainable development for buildings, including energy supply and demand analysis (e.g., sediment heat energy [16], lifecycle analysis [17]) and lowtemperature direct heating and cooling (DHC) systems [18]. Section 5 collects papers that address the topic of techno-economic assessment of renewable systems (e.g., energy storage systems in microgrids [19] and smart control for hybrid renewable energy resources [20]) and environmental evaluation (especially for individual mountain huts [21] and building retrofit [22]).…”